Culture, Illness, and Care: Clinical Lessons From Anthropologic and Cross-Cultural Research

TLDR

Traditional biomedical approaches fail to address major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access, and rising costs, prompting interest in anthropologic and cross-cultural research as an alternative framework. The study aims to translate anthropologic concepts into actionable clinical strategies for teaching and practice, highlighting the need for curricular and financial support. The authors illustrate a limited set of concepts—including the distinction between disease and illness and the cultural construction of clinical reality—and present a strategy that translates these ideas into clinical language for practical use.

Abstract

Major health care problems such as patient dissatisfaction, inequity of access to care, and spiraling costs no longer seem amenable to traditional biomedical solutions. Concepts derived from anthropologic and cross-cultural research may provide an alternative framework for identifying issues that require resolution. A limited set of such concepts is described and illustrated, including a fundamental distinction between disease and illness, and the notion of the cultural construction of clinical reality. These social science concepts can be developed into clinical strategies with direct application in practice and teaching. One such strategy is outlined as an example of a clinical social science capable of translating concepts from cultural anthropology into clinical language for practical application. The implementation of this approach in medical teaching and practice requires more support, both curricular and financial.